Memories of joy
by orange'n'lavender
Summary: Friendship is a source of great happiness... and when it is gone, it is the greatest sadness. MinaKushi, FugaMiko


**Hello! The plot bunnies strike again! Damn... oh well! Hope you like it! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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The first time he sees her, they are five, beginning their schooling in the secret arts of the elite of their village – ninja. He is the heir of one of the greatest clans, the prodigy; she is the new girl, the refugee of a fallen clan. He thinks she is a quiet, nice girl… if rather noticeable due to her brilliant red hair, but that isn't her fault. He quickly changes his mind (about her character, not her hair) about twenty minutes into the class, when their teacher asks them their goals. She jumps up with sudden and surprising enthusiasm (he learns not to be surprised by it after a while) and shouts her goal to the entire class. "I will be the first female Hokage!" The class is silent for a while, then the first sniggers start, soon spreading across the class in a wave. No one dares to _say_ anything, not with the teacher in the class, but she has been marked as a target for ridicule. A weak girl with strange red hair, she seems a very easy target.

After their first class (History of Konoha – a class which would have been sleep-inducing were it not for the barely supressed tension in the air, which breaks as soon as the teacher leaves), the mocking begins. Boys (and a few girls) crowd around her, jeering at her dream. To their surprise, she defends her goal passionately. Then, someone decides to insult her hair, and the fact that she is flushed and red-faced with anger and embarrassment. A new nickname pops up, until all of them are chanting it. "Tomato! Tomato!" He stays back, along with some other boys and most of the girls, not joining in, but not defending her either (why should they? They don't know her). He watches with interest as her face turns redder and redder, until finally her tolerance snaps. With a growl, she jumps into combat, her hair flying like a cloak of fire behind her. Within minutes, her tormenters are on the ground, and she is walking away in a huff. The next day, she has a new nickname, 'the Red-blooded Habanero'. However, now the name isn't spoken with derision, but with grudging respect and a tinge of fear.

* * *

Time passes, and they grow up. He becomes close friends with an orphan boy with sunny hair and ocean blue eyes. The clan heads are wary, until they hear the name –Minato Namikaze. Apparently, his was another clan which was destroyed in the Second Shinobi War. They are not so happy when Mikoto, one of his classmates and distant cousins, becomes fast friends with the redhead, whose name, he learns, is Kushina Uzumaki. But Mikoto possesses a spirit of steel and fire, and refuses to break of their friendship. People are surprised to see them together, the quiet Uchiha and the boisterous prankster.

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When they are seven, Mito-sama begins to mentor Kushina. Minato is jealous at first, as Mito-sama is the greatest seal master still alive, as well as the first Hokage's wife. To Minato (who Kushina had declared was her rival to be Hokage), it was as if she was being groomed to be Hokage. But Minato's jealousy dissipates when the Toad Sage himself takes interest in him, and begins to teach him. Under this powerful teacher, he flourishes. Kushina and Minato soon get over their rivalry, becoming friends. But they still argue and fight, and to him and Mikoto falls the task of separating them. The four of them soon form strong bonds.

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When they turn twelve, they graduate. Kushina and Minato both train further with their respective mentors, and Mikoto and him are placed in different teams. Their group drifts apart. Their genin days are not destined to be very peaceful, however. The other villages are stirring, and whispers of war reach even their ears. Konoha must be prepared, and thus, they are trained almost obsessively. Then he hears that Kushina has been taken by some Kumo ninja. Probably anticipating their reaction to this news, he, Mikoto and Minato are cautioned against going after them. But Minato does not listen. The three of them, along with a few of their friends (Shikaku, Inoichi, Chouza, Tsume) quickly run to save Kushina. It is Minato who notices the trail of red hair on the ground and follows it, despite Shikaku's warning of it being a trap. Kushina, he argues, would never let anyone touch her hair. They catch up with the Kumo Ninja, and watch as Minato, displaying all his considerable ninja skills, kills each and every ninja who dared to touch Kushina (there aren't many; apparently Kushina had decided that being a victim was boring, and had been fighting already, so Minato just provides support… but it is still amazing…and rather scary). Then the surviving ninja call for reinforcement, and Tsume gets restless, so Minato goes ahead with Kushina (who has apparently run out of chakra) while the rest of them take out the enemy.

When they get back, they expect a harsh punishment – after all, they _have _technically committed treason by disregarding the Hokage's orders. But all they get is a warning, and they have to swear to never do something like that again (he swears Danzo looks at them a little hungrily, freaking him out, but he ignores it in favour of celebrating-inwardly, of course- the fact that they had got off with no punishment). He learnt later that Kushina, with help from Minato, had convinced the Hokage that , well, they _had_ saved Kushina, who was the jinchuuriki of the kyuubi, and did he really want the kyuubi in the hands of Kumo? She had also called the ANBU team who had originally been sent to retrieve her were a bunch of pansies, and proceeded to prove it by somehow turning all their masks into hot pink unicorns. The end result is that they are let off the hook, since the Hokage said that it was amazing that they had managed to defeat about thirty Kumo nin, all of whom were jounin level, and live, and that he hoped they would have learnt something from this. (He does learn something; that unless you have a death wish, you do not touch Kushina. She is scary on her own, and if she did nothing, Minato would. He also learns that Mikoto is quite a good fighter, and that maybe marrying her wouldn't be so bad…but she would castrate him if he said so, so he keeps quite.)

* * *

Minato and Kushina become close after the incident…as does him and Mikoto. But they do not have luxury of time to figure out these feelings; war has begun, and all of them have to contribute. Minato is sent to the front lines, while he is part of the reserve force. Mikoto, too is sent to the front lines (she has never liked to use the Sharingan, and has become a very competent fighter without it), and he finds himself worrying more for her than for his best friend. They are all surprised when Kushina, instead of being sent to the front lines, or even the reserve force, instead is placed in the crypto section, where she has to break the codes that the enemy will use, to gain valuable information. She also, to everyone's shock, becomes a rather competent medic. But it makes sense, when he thinks about it. She has the Uzumaki bloodline, the one which, like the Uzumakis themselves, tends to break most of the rules of chakra control. (Chakra control, in normal cases, means that the more chakra you have, the harder it is to control. The Uzumaki bloodline, however, means that Kushina has high amounts of chakra, and near perfect control-the perfect combo.) Adding that to her natural aptitude at seals, and she was a natural medic, sensor and code-breaker.

* * *

War, he realizes, is painful, sad, and utterly pointless. By the end of the first year, he doubts anyone really knows why it started in the first place. He is sixteen, and seen and done things that will haunt him forever. Killing, maiming, torturing, spying… watching his friends die slowly, painfully… he, like everyone, wishes this would end. He prays fervently that his friends in the front line aren't dead – after all, if the reserve forces are suffering so much, what must be the state of the front line?

* * *

The intensity of the war decreases when he is nineteen, due in part to the fact that there is a new Raikage, and Kumo is no longer interested in the war. Iwa is starting to get desperate, and Konoha starts its slow, painful recovery, trusting in their powerful shinobi to protect them. He hears that Minato has taken on a team of genin. He even meets Minato's brats – after all, one of them are Mikoto's cousin or something, and another is Sakuno's kid. He also starts dating Mikoto, and eventually marries her. They get a child when they are twenty, at which time Minato and Kushina _finally_ get together. He thinks that, despite the war, it is the happiest time of his life so far. He has a beautiful wife, a perfect son, who they name Itachi (long story), and a best friend who is being considered for Hokage, and who is dating their other close friend.

Then Minato does become Hokage, and marries Kushina. He is gifted with a second son, a boy who they name Sasuke. At almost the same time, Kushina becomes pregnant. The two women immediately begin to make plans, declaring that Sasuke and Kushina's child (who, for reasons that he doesn't know, they have decided to call Naruto) will become the best of friends. They are close in age, so they will probably start the Academy at the same time… and so on. Minato and he just watch in amusement. Tsunade- san calculates the exact date of the child's birth, since the seal will weaken when she gives birth, and they need to be prepared.

* * *

Then, on the day of Naruto's birth, all hell breaks loose. No one is sure of what happens, but the Kyuubi breaks loose as Naruto is born. Ever available ninja is called to fight it, and they leave Sasuke in his big brother's hands. He remembers the feeling of grief as his comrades fall, the cries of rage, pain, and hate, as well as the feeling of hopelessness, as no attack seems to be doing much. But they continue, doing what they can to stop the kyuubi from reaching the village. He spares a thought for Kushina, who has probably died, since the hosts cannot live without the bijuu, but dismisses the thought. She is an Uzumaki, she has to survive. Then there is a great puff of smoke, and it clears to show Minato's great summons. Immediately, the ninja perk up; their Hokage is here, he can do anything. Right?

* * *

They watch as Minato, using seals, manages to teleport the beast away from the village. Many immediately follow, to provide back-up to their leader. He is among those who follow, trying to help the Hokage – no, trying to help his best friend. But they are too late. They arrive in time to watch in horror as Minato and Kushina, who has somehow arrived, are both impaled by a claw. Kushina, already looking weak, pales even more, but determinedly tightens the chakra chains holding the kyuubi down. They both whisper something to their child, who has begun to cry, before Minato nods at Kushina and begins a technique that all can see is a sealing technique. Everyone steps back in fear when a pale ghostly death god appears behind Minato, drawing the kyuubi into him. Then, somehow, with his last breath, Minato seals the rest of the kyuubi into his new-born son, a child who will now never see his parents again.

* * *

The village once again begins to heal, but it is different now. Before, there had been sorrow, but it was a war. People died. Now, there is no reason. It had been a freak attack, no one knew what happened, why the seal had failed. But now, everyone has a scapegoat. They all have someone to blame. He sees him sometimes, the tiny blond haired boy. He has Kushina's features, Minato's spiky hair and eyes, but it isn't the same. Minato's eyes never had that look, of loneliness, of pain, of seeing things that no child his age should see. And he wants to help so badly, to listen to Mikoto and take him into his home. But he is head of the Uchiha, and he has heard the rumours; he can't afford to be associated with the child. So he, like all the other parents, tells his children to stay away from the boy, while his heart hurts each time, mourning when he thinks of his friends, who would be ashamed of him for leaving their precious child to suffer alone, to live wondering if, like everyone else, his parents had hated him too; if no one wanted him, or would ever want him.

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**The end**

**And that was the latest attack of the plot bunnies. If you liked this, I would love to know! If you hated this, or mildly disliked it, tell me why! **

**Review! Bye!**


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